Boss Paul Jewell says the manner of Thursday’s 5-1 defeat to Norwich deflated everyone at the club after a more positive mood had been created in the early months of his time at Town. But the Blues manager refused to blame the after-effects of the derby loss for Monday’s subsequent 4-1 reverse at Swansea.
Jewell said: "We’d built up an awful lot of goodwill that we were making progress but the manner of the Norwich defeat really deflated the whole club, the supporters as well.
"I can’t see that [the Swansea defeat] was a hangover because for the first 10 minutes we played well.”
The Town manager was disappointed with the goals conceded after that bright start: "I’ve seen the goals and they’re poor defensively.
"And if you give good sides who are on a roll goals, you’re not going to come back. I want to get to the situation we had when we were at Bradford or at Wigan where when we went a goal down you actually felt on the bench ‘it doesn’t matter, we’ll score two or we’ll score three’ and I want the players to feel that.
"I can see the players don’t feel that at the moment. In either box we’ve been shown up in the games against the top teams.”
Jewell was at pains to point out that he wasn’t laying into his squad but merely outlining the reality of the situation: "I’m not having a pop at the players, they’re facts. If the players are as hungry and have as much desire as me to get in the Premiership, they know that.
"I told them that they can make a nice living mooching around mid-table, but that’s not what it’s about. This club is a brilliant football club and we need to get a bit of steel and a bit more desire into it.
"I’m sure I won’t be the first manager to say that, but I think that’s what lacking for us at the minute. It’s nothing to do with effort, I think the effort’s there, but a lot of it’s misguided.”
The Liverpudlian says that despite having done well against the division’s champions elect, there’s currently a gulf between a mid-table side like Town and those challenging for the automatic promotion places: "We played QPR and they beat us 2-0 but for long periods of that game we were quite comfortable and the better team.
"But against Norwich, Reading and Swansea you always felt that they had better footballers than us - quicker, stronger.
"That’s not an indictment of the lads, they’re facts. They’ve said that themselves in the dressing room after the game — as a group we’re not mentally tough enough and we’re not physically tough enough.
"If we can try and improve on that and add a lot more quality to the squad next season, hopefully this time next year we’ll be talking about a good Easter and looking up rather than being a bit depressed.”